I did not allege that everyone holding that notion treats it like a religions goal.

"A lot of business people and government officials" ≠ "everyone."

Please don't attack a straw-man.

They're your words. I didn't say everyone. You didn't say everyone. Where's the straw-man?

I never said that all people holding the notion of free markets treat it like a religious goal.

"A lot of business people and government officials" ≠ "people holding the notion" (your words).

PLEASE STOP attacking a straw-man.

I see that's how you've inferred it, however it was not my intention. Even to say that some people call it a religious goal is not humble.

It's not only me saying that. A long list of prominent people have noticed, described, and given names to this well-known phenomenon over the past four-plus decades. I think it was billionaire investor George Soros who first popularized the term "market fundamentalism" to describe it, back in the 1990's. Josepth Stiglitz, Nobel prize in economics, often talks about it. It's not hard to find hundreds of books on the topic on Amazon. There's nothing arrogant (the opposite of humble) about repeating what all those prominent people have said before me.

If the notion of market fundamentalism is truly news to you, you may want to start here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_fundamentalism

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8292.2009...

https://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Global-Capitalism-Society-Enda...

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/03/excerpt-from-...

---

PS. I never said anyone calls it a religious goal. What I did say is that for a lot of business executives and government officials it's akin to a religious goal, i.e., they are unwilling to change their minds about "free markets" even when the facts contradict their beliefs. In fact, they are so unwilling to change their minds that even mathematical proofs -- proofs! -- won't do it.